Dumezweni joins Jamie Parker as Harry Potter and Paul Thornley as Ron Weasley in the production, which picks up 19 years after the events of Deathly Hallows.

Earlier author JK Rowling, who developed the story with Jack Thorne and John Tiffany, defended the casting of a black actor for the role of Granger. “Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified,” the Harry Potter author tweeted in December 2015.